Articles | Volume 24, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4083-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4083-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Apr 2024
Research article |
| 08 Apr 2024
| 08 Apr 2024
Sharp increase in Saharan dust intrusions over the western Euro-Mediterranean in February–March 2020–2022 and associated atmospheric circulation
Emilio Cuevas-Agulló
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
retired
David Barriopedro
Instituto de Geociencias (IGEO), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – Universidad Complutense de Madrid (CSIC-UCM), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Rosa Delia García
Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
TRAGSATEC, Madrid, Spain
Silvia Alonso-Pérez
Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38002 La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain
Instituto Universitario de Estudios de las Mujeres, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38002 La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain
Juan Jesús González-Alemán
Modelling Area – Department of Development and Applications, State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 28040 Madrid, Spain
Ernest Werner
Territorial Delegation of AEMET in Catalonia, State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 08071 Barcelona, Spain
David Suárez
Territorial Delegation of AEMET in the Canary Islands, State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET), 35017 Las Palmas, Spain
Juan José Bustos
Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Gerardo García-Castrillo
Territorial Delegation of AEMET in Catalonia, State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 08071 Barcelona, Spain
Omaira García
Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
África Barreto
Izaña Atmospheric Research Center (IARC), State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), 38001 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 08034 Barcelona, Spain
now at: the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 1201 Geneva, Switzerland
Related authors
No articles found.
Mauricio López-Reyes, María Luisa Martín-Pérez, Carlos Calvo-Sancho, and Juan Jesús González-Alemán
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3109, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3109, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
Short summary
Short summary
This study explored why Hurricane Lidia rapidly intensified near Mexico’s Pacific coast. We found that specific upper-atmosphere weather patterns significantly boosted the hurricane’s strength. Identifying these early atmospheric signals can help predict rapid intensification more accurately, especially in regions with limited forecasting tools. Our method provides a cost-effective way to better anticipate hurricanes, potentially improving warnings and safety measures.
Solange Suli, David Barriopedro, Ricardo García-Herrera, Soledad Collazo, Antonello Squintu, and Matilde Rusticucci
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3357, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3357, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
Short summary
Short summary
Heat extremes are becoming more frequent and intense in southern South America. This study uses a storyline approach to explore how different climate drivers shape future summer temperature extremes. Using climate model simulations, we identified key drivers, such as soil moisture, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric circulation, to build physically consistent scenarios that explain much of the uncertainty in regional warming projections.
Aki Tsuruta, Akihiko Kuze, Kei Shiomi, Fumie Kataoka, Nobuhiro Kikuchi, Tuula Aalto, Leif Backman, Ella Kivimäki, Maria K. Tenkanen, Kathryn McKain, Omaira E. García, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Mahesh K. Sha, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Te, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, Minqiang Zhou, and Hiroshi Suto
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7829–7862, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7829-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7829-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite data bring invaluable information about greenhouse gas emissions globally. We found that a new type of data from the Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT), which contains information about methane in the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, could provide reliable estimates of recent methane emissions when combined with atmospheric modelling. Therefore, the use of such data is encouraged to improve emission quantification methods and advance our understanding of methane cycles.
África Barreto, Francisco Quirós, Omaira E. García, Jorge Pereda-de-Pablo, Daniel González-Fernández, Andrés Bedoya-Velásquez, Michael Sicard, Carmen Córdoba-Jabonero, Marco Iarlori, Vincenzo Rizi, Nickolay Krotkov, Simon Carn, Reijo Roininen, Antonio J. Molina-Arias, A. Fernando Almansa, Óscar Álvarez-Losada, Carla Aramo, Juan José Bustos, Romain Ceolato, Adolfo Comerón, Alicia Felpeto, Rosa D. García, Pablo González-Sicilia, Yenny González, Pascal Hedelt, Miguel Hernández, María-Ángeles López-Cayuela, Diego Loyola, Stavros Meletlidis, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Ermanno Pietropaolo, Ramón Ramos, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Roberto Román, Pedro M. Romero-Campos, Martin Stuefer, Carlos Toledano, and Elsworth Welton
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3164, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3164, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
Short summary
Short summary
This manuscript describes the instrumental coverage deployed during the Tajogaite eruption (19 September–25 December 2021) by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), and other Spanish members of ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) to monitor its atmospheric impact. Two complementary methods provide consistent plume height data for future operational surveillance.
Roberto Román, Daniel González-Fernández, Juan Carlos Antuña-Sánchez, Celia Herrero del Barrio, Sara Herrero-Anta, África Barreto, Victoria E. Cachorro, Lionel Doppler, Ramiro González, Christoph Ritter, David Mateos, Natalia Kouremeti, Gustavo Copes, Abel Calle, María José Granados-Muñoz, Carlos Toledano, and Ángel M. de Frutos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2847–2875, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2847-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2847-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a novel technique to extract starlight signals from all-sky images and retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD). It is validated against lunar photometry, showing a strong correlation between data series. This innovative approach will expand nocturnal AOD measurements to more locations, as all-sky cameras are a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to stellar and lunar photometers.
Natalie M. Mahowald, Longlei Li, Julius Vira, Marje Prank, Douglas S. Hamilton, Hitoshi Matsui, Ron L. Miller, P. Louis Lu, Ezgi Akyuz, Daphne Meidan, Peter Hess, Heikki Lihavainen, Christine Wiedinmyer, Jenny Hand, Maria Grazia Alaimo, Célia Alves, Andres Alastuey, Paulo Artaxo, Africa Barreto, Francisco Barraza, Silvia Becagli, Giulia Calzolai, Shankararaman Chellam, Ying Chen, Patrick Chuang, David D. Cohen, Cristina Colombi, Evangelia Diapouli, Gaetano Dongarra, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Johann Engelbrecht, Corinne Galy-Lacaux, Cassandra Gaston, Dario Gomez, Yenny González Ramos, Roy M. Harrison, Chris Heyes, Barak Herut, Philip Hopke, Christoph Hüglin, Maria Kanakidou, Zsofia Kertesz, Zbigniew Klimont, Katriina Kyllönen, Fabrice Lambert, Xiaohong Liu, Remi Losno, Franco Lucarelli, Willy Maenhaut, Beatrice Marticorena, Randall V. Martin, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Yasser Morera-Gómez, Adina Paytan, Joseph Prospero, Sergio Rodríguez, Patricia Smichowski, Daniela Varrica, Brenna Walsh, Crystal L. Weagle, and Xi Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4665–4702, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4665-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4665-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosol particles are an important part of the Earth system, but their concentrations are spatially and temporally heterogeneous, as well as being variable in size and composition. Here, we present a new compilation of PM2.5 and PM10 aerosol observations, focusing on the spatial variability across different observational stations, including composition, and demonstrate a method for comparing the data sets to model output.
Yenny González, María F. Sánchez-Barrero, Ioana Popovici, África Barreto, Stephane Victori, Ellsworth J. Welton, Rosa D. García, Pablo G. Sicilia, Fernando A. Almansa, Carlos Torres, and Philippe Goloub
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1885–1908, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1885-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1885-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We characterize the optical properties of various aerosols using a compact dual-wavelength depolarization lidar (CIMEL CE376) at 532 and 808 nm. Through a modified two-wavelength Klett inversion method, we assess the vertical distribution and temporal evolution of Saharan dust, volcanic aerosols and wildfire smoke in the subtropical North Atlantic from August 2021 to August 2023. The study confirms the CE376 lidar's effectiveness in monitoring and characterizing atmospheric aerosols over time.
Noémie Taquet, Thomas Boulesteix, Omaira García, Robin Campion, Wolfgang Stremme, Sergio Rodríguez, Jessica López-Darias, Carlos Marrero, Diego González-García, Andreas Klügel, Frank Hase, M. Isabel García, Ramón Ramos, Pedro Rivas-Soriano, Sergio Léon-Luis, Virgilio Carreño, Antonio Alcántara, Eliezer Sépulveda, Celia Milford, Pablo González-Sicilia, and Carlos Torres
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1092, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1092, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Direct-sun solar absorption FTIR and DOAS measurements were performed during the 2021 La Palma eruption from distance up to 140 km. Using FTIR-DOAS gas-to-sulfur ratios and SO2 fluxes derived from TROPOMI, CO2, CO, HCl, HF volcanic emissions were estimated. Estimates of emission budget were found in good agreement with petrologic data. This study demonstrates the feasability of using existing atmospheric monitoring network to monitor volcanic eruptions.
Sina Voshtani, Dylan B. A. Jones, Debra Wunch, Drew C. Pendergrass, Paul O. Wennberg, David F. Pollard, Isamu Morino, Hirofumi Ohyama, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Frank Hase, Ralf Sussmann, Damien Weidmann, Rigel Kivi, Omaira García, Yao Té, Jack Chen, Kerry Anderson, Robin Stevens, Shobha Kondragunta, Aihua Zhu, Douglas Worthy, Senen Racki, Kathryn McKain, Maria V. Makarova, Nicholas Jones, Emmanuel Mahieu, Andrea Cadena-Caicedo, Paolo Cristofanelli, Casper Labuschagne, Elena Kozlova, Thomas Seitz, Martin Steinbacher, Reza Mahdi, and Isao Murata
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-858, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-858, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We assess the complementarity of the greater temporal coverage provided by ground-based remote sensing data with the spatial coverage of satellite observations when these data are used together to quantify CO emissions from extreme wildfires in 2023. Our results reveal that the commonly used biomass burning emission inventories significantly underestimate the fire emissions and emphasize the importance of the ground-based remote sensing data in reducing uncertainties in the estimated emissions.
Frank Hase, Paolo Castracane, Angelika Dehn, Omaira Elena García, David W. T. Griffith, Lukas Heizmann, Nicholas B. Jones, Tomi Karppinen, Rigel Kivi, Martine de Mazière, Justus Notholt, and Mahesh Kumar Sha
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1257–1267, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1257-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1257-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The primary measurement result delivered by a Fourier transform spectrometer is an interferogram, and the spectrum required for further analysis needs to be calculated from the interferogram by Fourier analysis. The paper deals with technical aspects of this process and shows how the reconstruction of the spectrum can be optimized.
Soledad Collazo, David Barriopedro, Ricardo García-Herrera, and Santiago Beguería
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-792, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-792, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In the 2023/24 season, Rio de Janeiro experienced record-breaking heatwaves linked to climate change and El Niño. Our study shows global warming made these extreme temperatures at least 2°C hotter than in pre-industrial times. Heat-related deaths surged, with climate change contributing to 1 in 3 fatalities during the peak event. Without adaptation, future heatwaves will claim even more lives. This underscores the urgent need for policies to mitigate climate impacts from escalating heat threats.
Chaim I. Garfinkel, Zachary D. Lawrence, Amy H. Butler, Etienne Dunn-Sigouin, Irene Erner, Alexey Y. Karpechko, Gerbrand Koren, Marta Abalos, Blanca Ayarzagüena, David Barriopedro, Natalia Calvo, Alvaro de la Cámara, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Judah Cohen, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Javier García-Serrano, Neil P. Hindley, Martin Jucker, Hera Kim, Robert W. Lee, Simon H. Lee, Marisol Osman, Froila M. Palmeiro, Inna Polichtchouk, Jian Rao, Jadwiga H. Richter, Chen Schwartz, Seok-Woo Son, Masakazu Taguchi, Nicholas L. Tyrrell, Corwin J. Wright, and Rachel W.-Y. Wu
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 171–195, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-171-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-171-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Variability in the extratropical stratosphere and troposphere is coupled, and because of the longer timescales characteristic of the stratosphere, this allows for a window of opportunity for surface prediction. This paper assesses whether models used for operational prediction capture these coupling processes accurately. We find that most processes are too weak; however downward coupling from the lower stratosphere to the near surface is too strong.
Emmanouil Proestakis, Vassilis Amiridis, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Svetlana Tsyro, Jan Griesfeller, Antonis Gkikas, Thanasis Georgiou, María Gonçalves Ageitos, Jeronimo Escribano, Stelios Myriokefalitakis, Elisa Bergas Masso, Enza Di Tomaso, Sara Basart, Jan-Berend W. Stuut, and Angela Benedetti
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-43, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-43, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Quantification of dust deposition into the broader Atlantic Ocean is provided, with the estimates established on the basis of Earth Observations. The dataset is considered unique with respect to a range of applications, including compensating for spatiotemporal gaps of sediment-trap measurements, assessments of model simulations, shedding light into physical processes related to the dust cycle, and to better understand dust biogeochemical impacts on oceanic ecosystems, on weather, and climate.
Pascal Hedelt, Jens Reichardt, Felix Lauermann, Benjamin Weiß, Nicolas Theys, Alberto Redondas, Africa Barreto, Omaira Garcia, and Diego Loyola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1253–1272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1253-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1253-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The 2021 volcanic eruption of Tajogaite on La Palma is investigated using ground-based and satellite measurements. In addition, the atmospheric transport of the volcanic cloud towards Europe is studied in detail. The amount of SO2 released during the eruption and the height of the volcanic plume are in excellent agreement among the different measurements. Furthermore, volcanic aerosol microphysical properties could be retrieved using a new retrieval approach based on lidar measurements.
Robin Björklund, Corinne Vigouroux, Peter Effertz, Omaira E. García, Alex Geddes, James Hannigan, Koji Miyagawa, Michael Kotkamp, Bavo Langerock, Gerald Nedoluha, Ivan Ortega, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Deniz Poyraz, Richard Querel, John Robinson, Hisako Shiona, Dan Smale, Penny Smale, Roeland Van Malderen, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6819–6849, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6819-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6819-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Different ground-based ozone measurements from the last 2 decades at Lauder are compared to each other. We want to know why different trends have been observed in the stratosphere. Also, the quality and relevance of tropospheric datasets need to be evaluated. While remaining drifts are still present, our study explains roughly half of the differences in observed trends in previous studies and shows the necessity for continuous review and improvement of the measurements.
Kerry Emanuel, Tommaso Alberti, Stella Bourdin, Suzana J. Camargo, Davide Faranda, Manos Flaounas, Juan Jesus Gonzalez-Aleman, Chia-Ying Lee, Mario Marcello Miglietta, Claudia Pasquero, Alice Portal, Hamish Ramsay, and Romualdo Romero
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3387, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3387, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Storms strongly resembling hurricanes are sometime observed to form well outside the tropics, even in polar latitudes. They behave capriciously, developing very rapidly and then dying just as quickly. We show that strong dynamical processes in the atmosphere can sometimes cause it to become locally much colder than the underlying ocean, creating the conditions for hurricanes to form, but only over small areas and for short times. We call the resulting storms "cyclops".
Dene Bowdalo, Sara Basart, Marc Guevara, Oriol Jorba, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Monica Jaimes Palomera, Olivia Rivera Hernandez, Melissa Puchalski, David Gay, Jörg Klausen, Sergio Moreno, Stoyka Netcheva, and Oksana Tarasova
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4417–4495, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4417-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4417-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
GHOST (Globally Harmonised Observations in Space and Time) represents one of the biggest collections of harmonised measurements of atmospheric composition at the surface. In total, 7 275 148 646 measurements from 1970 to 2023, from 227 different components, and from 38 reporting networks are compiled, parsed, and standardised. Components processed include gaseous species, total and speciated particulate matter, and aerosol optical properties.
Florian Pantillon, Silvio Davolio, Elenio Avolio, Carlos Calvo-Sancho, Diego Saul Carrió, Stavros Dafis, Emanuele Silvio Gentile, Juan Jesus Gonzalez-Aleman, Suzanne Gray, Mario Marcello Miglietta, Platon Patlakas, Ioannis Pytharoulis, Didier Ricard, Antonio Ricchi, Claudio Sanchez, and Emmanouil Flaounas
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1187–1205, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1187-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1187-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Cyclone Ianos of September 2020 was a high-impact but poorly predicted medicane (Mediterranean hurricane). A community effort of numerical modelling provides robust results to improve prediction. It is found that the representation of local thunderstorms controlled the interaction of Ianos with a jet stream at larger scales and its subsequent evolution. The results help us understand the peculiar dynamics of medicanes and provide guidance for the next generation of weather and climate models.
Monica Campanelli, Victor Estellés, Gaurav Kumar, Teruyuki Nakajima, Masahiro Momoi, Julian Gröbner, Stelios Kazadzis, Natalia Kouremeti, Angelos Karanikolas, Africa Barreto, Saulius Nevas, Kerstin Schwind, Philipp Schneider, Iiro Harju, Petri Kärhä, Henri Diémoz, Rei Kudo, Akihiro Uchiyama, Akihiro Yamazaki, Anna Maria Iannarelli, Gabriele Mevi, Annalisa Di Bernardino, and Stefano Casadio
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5029–5050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5029-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5029-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
To retrieve columnar aerosol properties from sun photometers, some calibration factors are needed. The on-site calibrations, performed as frequently as possible to monitor changes in the machine conditions, allow operators to track and evaluate the calibration status on a continuous basis, reducing the data gaps incurred by the periodic shipments for performing centralized calibrations. The performance of the on-site calibration procedures was evaluated, providing very good results.
Carlos Toledano, Sarah Taylor, África Barreto, Stefan Adriaensen, Alberto Berjón, Agnieszka Bialek, Ramiro González, Emma Woolliams, and Marc Bouvet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3649–3671, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The calibration of Earth observation sensors is key to ensuring the continuity of long-term and global climate records. Satellite sensors, calibrated prior to launch, are susceptible to degradation in space. The Moon provides a stable calibration reference; however, its illumination depends on the Sun–Earth–Moon geometry and must be modelled. A new lunar irradiance model is presented, built upon observations over 5 years at a high-altitude observatory and a rigorous calibration and validation.
Natalie M. Mahowald, Longlei Li, Julius Vira, Marje Prank, Douglas S. Hamilton, Hitoshi Matsui, Ron L. Miller, Louis Lu, Ezgi Akyuz, Daphne Meidan, Peter Hess, Heikki Lihavainen, Christine Wiedinmyer, Jenny Hand, Maria Grazia Alaimo, Célia Alves, Andres Alastuey, Paulo Artaxo, Africa Barreto, Francisco Barraza, Silvia Becagli, Giulia Calzolai, Shankarararman Chellam, Ying Chen, Patrick Chuang, David D. Cohen, Cristina Colombi, Evangelia Diapouli, Gaetano Dongarra, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Corinne Galy-Lacaux, Cassandra Gaston, Dario Gomez, Yenny González Ramos, Hannele Hakola, Roy M. Harrison, Chris Heyes, Barak Herut, Philip Hopke, Christoph Hüglin, Maria Kanakidou, Zsofia Kertesz, Zbiginiw Klimont, Katriina Kyllönen, Fabrice Lambert, Xiaohong Liu, Remi Losno, Franco Lucarelli, Willy Maenhaut, Beatrice Marticorena, Randall V. Martin, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Yasser Morera-Gomez, Adina Paytan, Joseph Prospero, Sergio Rodríguez, Patricia Smichowski, Daniela Varrica, Brenna Walsh, Crystal Weagle, and Xi Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-1, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-1, 2024
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
Aerosol particles can interact with incoming solar radiation and outgoing long wave radiation, change cloud properties, affect photochemistry, impact surface air quality, and when deposited impact surface albedo of snow and ice, and modulate carbon dioxide uptake by the land and ocean. Here we present a new compilation of aerosol observations including composition, a methodology for comparing the datasets to model output, and show the implications of these results using one model.
Antonio Fernando Almansa, África Barreto, Natalia Kouremeti, Ramiro González, Akriti Masoom, Carlos Toledano, Julian Gröbner, Rosa Delia García, Yenny González, Stelios Kazadzis, Stéphane Victori, Óscar Álvarez, Fabrice Maupin, Virgilio Carreño, Victoria Eugenia Cachorro, and Emilio Cuevas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 659–675, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-659-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-659-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper applies sun photometer synergies to improve calibration transference between different sun photometers and also enhance their quality assurance and quality control. We have validated this technique using different instrumentation, the WMO-GAW and NASA-AERONET references, under different aerosol regimes using the standard Langley calibration method as a reference.
Óscar Alvárez, África Barreto, Omaira E. García, Frank Hase, Rosa D. García, Julian Gröbner, Sergio F. León-Luis, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Virgilio Carreño, Antonio Alcántara, Ramón Ramos, A. Fernando Almansa, Stelios Kazadzis, Noémie Taquet, Carlos Toledano, and Emilio Cuevas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4861–4884, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4861-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4861-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, we have extended the capabilities of a portable Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) instrument, which was originally designed to provide high-quality greenhouse gas monitoring within COCCON (COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network). The extension allows the spectrometer to now also provide coincidentally column-integrated aerosol information. This addition of a reference instrument to a global network will be utilised to enhance our understanding of atmospheric chemistry.
Julian Gröbner, Natalia Kouremeti, Gregor Hülsen, Ralf Zuber, Mario Ribnitzky, Saulius Nevas, Peter Sperfeld, Kerstin Schwind, Philipp Schneider, Stelios Kazadzis, África Barreto, Tom Gardiner, Kavitha Mottungan, David Medland, and Marc Coleman
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4667–4680, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4667-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4667-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Spectral solar irradiance measurements traceable to the International System of Units (SI) allow for intercomparability between instruments and for their validation according to metrological standards. Here we also validate and reduce the uncertainties of the top-of-atmosphere TSIS-1 Hybrid Solar Reference Spectrum (HSRS). The management of large networks, e.g. AERONET or GAW-PFR, will benefit from reducing logistical overhead, improving their resilience and achieving metrological traceability.
María Gonçalves Ageitos, Vincenzo Obiso, Ron L. Miller, Oriol Jorba, Martina Klose, Matt Dawson, Yves Balkanski, Jan Perlwitz, Sara Basart, Enza Di Tomaso, Jerónimo Escribano, Francesca Macchia, Gilbert Montané, Natalie M. Mahowald, Robert O. Green, David R. Thompson, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8623–8657, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8623-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8623-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Dust aerosols affect our climate differently depending on their mineral composition. We include dust mineralogy in an atmospheric model considering two existing soil maps, which still have large associated uncertainties. The soil data and the distribution of the minerals in different aerosol sizes are key to our model performance. We find significant regional variations in climate-relevant variables, which supports including mineralogy in our current models and the need for improved soil maps.
Christian Ferrarin, Florian Pantillon, Silvio Davolio, Marco Bajo, Mario Marcello Miglietta, Elenio Avolio, Diego S. Carrió, Ioannis Pytharoulis, Claudio Sanchez, Platon Patlakas, Juan Jesús González-Alemán, and Emmanouil Flaounas
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2273–2287, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2273-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2273-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The combined use of meteorological and ocean models enabled the analysis of extreme sea conditions driven by Medicane Ianos, which hit the western coast of Greece on 18 September 2020, flooding and damaging the coast. The large spread associated with the ensemble highlighted the high model uncertainty in simulating such an extreme weather event. The different simulations have been used for outlining hazard scenarios that represent a fundamental component of the coastal risk assessment.
Michail Mytilinaios, Sara Basart, Sergio Ciamprone, Juan Cuesta, Claudio Dema, Enza Di Tomaso, Paola Formenti, Antonis Gkikas, Oriol Jorba, Ralph Kahn, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Serena Trippetta, and Lucia Mona
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5487–5516, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5487-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5487-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Multiscale Online Non-hydrostatic AtmospheRe CHemistry model (MONARCH) dust reanalysis provides a high-resolution 3D reconstruction of past dust conditions, allowing better quantification of climate and socioeconomic dust impacts. We assess the performance of the reanalysis needed to reproduce dust optical depth using dust-related products retrieved from satellite and ground-based observations and show that it reproduces the spatial distribution and seasonal variability of atmospheric dust well.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Zihan Chen, Matthias Schneider, Omaira García, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Shuo Chen, Thomas Blumenstock, Fang Liu, Kai Qin, Jason Cohen, Qin He, Song Lin, Hongyan Jiang, and Dianjun Fang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2237–2262, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2237-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2237-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Four-year TROPOMI observations are used to derive tropospheric NO2 emissions in two mega(cities) with high anthropogenic activity. Wind-assigned anomalies are calculated, and the emission rates and spatial patterns are estimated based on a machine learning algorithm. The results are in reasonable agreement with previous studies and the inventory. Our method is quite robust and can be used as a simple method to estimate the emissions of NO2 as well as other gases in other regions.
Brendan Byrne, David F. Baker, Sourish Basu, Michael Bertolacci, Kevin W. Bowman, Dustin Carroll, Abhishek Chatterjee, Frédéric Chevallier, Philippe Ciais, Noel Cressie, David Crisp, Sean Crowell, Feng Deng, Zhu Deng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Sha Feng, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Benedikt Herkommer, Lei Hu, Andrew R. Jacobson, Rajesh Janardanan, Sujong Jeong, Matthew S. Johnson, Dylan B. A. Jones, Rigel Kivi, Junjie Liu, Zhiqiang Liu, Shamil Maksyutov, John B. Miller, Scot M. Miller, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Tomohiro Oda, Christopher W. O'Dell, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, Prabir K. Patra, Hélène Peiro, Christof Petri, Sajeev Philip, David F. Pollard, Benjamin Poulter, Marine Remaud, Andrew Schuh, Mahesh K. Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Colm Sweeney, Yao Té, Hanqin Tian, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, John R. Worden, Debra Wunch, Yuanzhi Yao, Jeongmin Yun, Andrew Zammit-Mangion, and Ning Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 963–1004, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-963-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-963-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in the carbon stocks of terrestrial ecosystems result in emissions and removals of CO2. These can be driven by anthropogenic activities (e.g., deforestation), natural processes (e.g., fires) or in response to rising CO2 (e.g., CO2 fertilization). This paper describes a dataset of CO2 emissions and removals derived from atmospheric CO2 observations. This pilot dataset informs current capabilities and future developments towards top-down monitoring and verification systems.
Carlos Calvo-Sancho, Javier Díaz-Fernández, Yago Martín, Pedro Bolgiani, Mariano Sastre, Juan Jesús González-Alemán, Daniel Santos-Muñoz, José Ignacio Farrán, and María Luisa Martín
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 1021–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1021-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1021-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Supercells are among the most complex and dangerous severe convective storms due to their associated phenomena (lightning, strong winds, large hail, flash floods, or tornadoes). In this survey we study the supercell synoptic configurations and convective environments in Spain using the atmospheric reanalysis ERA5. Supercells are grouped into hail (greater than 5 cm) and non-hail events in order to compare and analyze the two events. The results reveal statistically significant differences.
África Barreto, Rosa D. García, Carmen Guirado-Fuentes, Emilio Cuevas, A. Fernando Almansa, Celia Milford, Carlos Toledano, Francisco J. Expósito, Juan P. Díaz, and Sergio F. León-Luis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11105–11124, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11105-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11105-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
A comprehensive characterization of atmospheric aerosols in the subtropical eastern North Atlantic has been carried out in this paper using long-term ground AERONET photometric observations over the period 2005–2020 from a unique network made up of four stations strategically located from sea level to 3555 m height on the island of Tenerife. This is a region that can be considered a key location to study the seasonal dependence of dust transport from the Sahel-Sahara.
Zachary D. Lawrence, Marta Abalos, Blanca Ayarzagüena, David Barriopedro, Amy H. Butler, Natalia Calvo, Alvaro de la Cámara, Andrew Charlton-Perez, Daniela I. V. Domeisen, Etienne Dunn-Sigouin, Javier García-Serrano, Chaim I. Garfinkel, Neil P. Hindley, Liwei Jia, Martin Jucker, Alexey Y. Karpechko, Hera Kim, Andrea L. Lang, Simon H. Lee, Pu Lin, Marisol Osman, Froila M. Palmeiro, Judith Perlwitz, Inna Polichtchouk, Jadwiga H. Richter, Chen Schwartz, Seok-Woo Son, Irene Erner, Masakazu Taguchi, Nicholas L. Tyrrell, Corwin J. Wright, and Rachel W.-Y. Wu
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 977–1001, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-977-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-977-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Forecast models that are used to predict weather often struggle to represent the Earth’s stratosphere. This may impact their ability to predict surface weather weeks in advance, on subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescales. We use data from many S2S forecast systems to characterize and compare the stratospheric biases present in such forecast models. These models have many similar stratospheric biases, but they tend to be worse in systems with low model tops located within the stratosphere.
Omaira E. García, Esther Sanromá, Frank Hase, Matthias Schneider, Sergio Fabián León-Luis, Thomas Blumenstock, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Carlos Torres, Natalia Prats, Alberto Redondas, and Virgilio Carreño
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4547–4567, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4547-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4547-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Retrieving high-precision concentrations of atmospheric trace gases from FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometry requires a precise knowledge of the instrumental performance. In this context, this paper examines the impact on the ozone (O3) retrievals of several approaches used to characterise the instrumental line shape (ILS) function of ground-based FTIR spectrometers within NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change).
Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Qiansi Tu, Christopher J. Diekmann, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Amelie N. Röhling, Frank Hase, Darko Dubravica, Omaira E. García, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Tobias Borsdorff, Jochen Landgraf, Alba Lorente, André Butz, Huilin Chen, Rigel Kivi, Thomas Laemmel, Michel Ramonet, Cyril Crevoisier, Jérome Pernin, Martin Steinbacher, Frank Meinhardt, Kimberly Strong, Debra Wunch, Thorsten Warneke, Coleen Roehl, Paul O. Wennberg, Isamu Morino, Laura T. Iraci, Kei Shiomi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, David W. T. Griffith, Voltaire A. Velazco, and David F. Pollard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4339–4371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4339-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4339-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present a computationally very efficient method for the synergetic use of level 2 remote-sensing data products. We apply the method to IASI vertical profile and TROPOMI total column space-borne methane observations and thus gain sensitivity for the tropospheric methane partial columns, which is not achievable by the individual use of TROPOMI and IASI. These synergetic effects are evaluated theoretically and empirically by inter-comparisons to independent references of TCCON, AirCore, and GAW.
Enza Di Tomaso, Jerónimo Escribano, Sara Basart, Paul Ginoux, Francesca Macchia, Francesca Barnaba, Francesco Benincasa, Pierre-Antoine Bretonnière, Arnau Buñuel, Miguel Castrillo, Emilio Cuevas, Paola Formenti, María Gonçalves, Oriol Jorba, Martina Klose, Lucia Mona, Gilbert Montané Pinto, Michail Mytilinaios, Vincenzo Obiso, Miriam Olid, Nick Schutgens, Athanasios Votsis, Ernest Werner, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2785–2816, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2785-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2785-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
MONARCH reanalysis of desert dust aerosols extends the existing observation-based information for mineral dust monitoring by providing 3-hourly upper-air, surface and total column key geophysical variables of the dust cycle over Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe, at a 0.1° horizontal resolution in a rotated grid, from 2007 to 2016. This work provides evidence of the high accuracy of this data set and its suitability for air quality and health and climate service applications.
Omaira Elena García, Esther Sanromá, Matthias Schneider, Frank Hase, Sergio Fabián León-Luis, Thomas Blumenstock, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Alberto Redondas, Virgilio Carreño, Carlos Torres, and Natalia Prats
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2557–2577, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2557-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2557-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate observations of atmospheric ozone (O3) are essential to monitor in detail its key role in atmospheric chemistry. In this context, this paper has assessed the effect of using different retrieval strategies on the quality of O3 products from ground-based NDACC FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometry, with the aim of providing an improved O3 retrieval that could be applied at any NDACC FTIR station.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Christopher J. Diekmann, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Andreas Weber, Frank Hase, Michael Höpfner, Omaira E. García, Eliezer Sepúlveda, and Douglas Kinnison
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 709–742, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-709-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-709-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present atmospheric H2O, HDO / H2O ratio, N2O, CH4, and HNO3 data generated by the MUSICA IASI processor using thermal nadir spectra measured by the IASI satellite instrument. The data have global daily coverage and are available for the period between October 2014 and June 2021. Multiple possibilities of data reuse are offered by providing each individual data product together with information about retrieval settings and the products' uncertainty and vertical representativeness.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Crisp, Akhiko Kuze, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Paul O. Wennberg, Abhishek Chatterjee, Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan Fisher, Matthäus Kiel, Robert R. Nelson, Aronne Merrelli, Greg Osterman, Frédéric Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Martine De Mazière, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Matthias Schneider, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 325–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We provide an analysis of an 11-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations derived using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm on measurements made by the GOSAT satellite. The new product (version 9) shows improvement over the previous version (v7.3) as evaluated against independent estimates of CO2 from ground-based sensors and atmospheric inversion systems. We also compare the new GOSAT CO2 values to collocated estimates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
África Barreto, Emilio Cuevas, Rosa D. García, Judit Carrillo, Joseph M. Prospero, Luka Ilić, Sara Basart, Alberto J. Berjón, Carlos L. Marrero, Yballa Hernández, Juan José Bustos, Slobodan Ničković, and Margarita Yela
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 739–763, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-739-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-739-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we categorise the different patterns of dust transport over the subtropical North Atlantic and for the first time robustly describe the dust vertical distribution in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL) over this region. Our results revealed the important role that both dust and water vapour play in the radiative balance in summer and winter and confirm the role of the SAL in the formation of mid-level clouds as a result of the activation of heterogeneous ice nucleation processes.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Matthias Schneider, Omaira García, Thomas Blumenstock, Tobias Borsdorff, Matthias Frey, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Alba Lorente, Carlos Alberti, Juan J. Bustos, André Butz, Virgilio Carreño, Emilio Cuevas, Roger Curcoll, Christopher J. Diekmann, Darko Dubravica, Benjamin Ertl, Carme Estruch, Sergio Fabián León-Luis, Carlos Marrero, Josep-Anton Morgui, Ramón Ramos, Christian Scharun, Carsten Schneider, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Carlos Toledano, and Carlos Torres
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 295–317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-295-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-295-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We use different methane ground- and space-based remote sensing data sets for investigating the emission strength of three waste disposal sites close to Madrid. We present a method that uses wind-assigned anomalies for deriving emission strengths from satellite data and estimate their uncertainty to 9–14 %. The emission strengths estimated from the remote sensing data sets are significantly larger than the values published in the official register.
Christopher J. Diekmann, Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Frank Hase, Omaira García, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Peter Knippertz, and Peter Braesicke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5273–5292, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5273-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5273-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The joint analysis of different stable water isotopes in water vapour is a powerful tool for investigating atmospheric moisture pathways. This paper presents a novel global and multi-annual dataset of H2O and HDO in mid-tropospheric water vapour by using data from the satellite sensor Metop/IASI. Due to its unique combination of coverage and resolution in space and time, this dataset is highly promising for studying the hydrological cycle and its representation in weather and climate models.
Martina Klose, Oriol Jorba, María Gonçalves Ageitos, Jeronimo Escribano, Matthew L. Dawson, Vincenzo Obiso, Enza Di Tomaso, Sara Basart, Gilbert Montané Pinto, Francesca Macchia, Paul Ginoux, Juan Guerschman, Catherine Prigent, Yue Huang, Jasper F. Kok, Ron L. Miller, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 6403–6444, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-6403-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-6403-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Mineral soil dust is a major atmospheric airborne particle type. We present and evaluate MONARCH, a model used for regional and global dust-weather prediction. An important feature of the model is that it allows different approximations to represent dust, ranging from more simplified to more complex treatments. Using these different treatments, MONARCH can help us better understand impacts of dust in the Earth system, such as its interactions with radiation.
Omaira E. García, Matthias Schneider, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Frank Hase, Thomas Blumenstock, Emilio Cuevas, Ramón Ramos, Jochen Gross, Sabine Barthlott, Amelie N. Röhling, Esther Sanromá, Yenny González, Ángel J. Gómez-Peláez, Mónica Navarro-Comas, Olga Puentedura, Margarita Yela, Alberto Redondas, Virgilio Carreño, Sergio F. León-Luis, Enrique Reyes, Rosa D. García, Pedro P. Rivas, Pedro M. Romero-Campos, Carlos Torres, Natalia Prats, Miguel Hernández, and César López
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15519–15554, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15519-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15519-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper analyses the potential of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) solar observations to monitor atmospheric gaseous composition and investigate multiple climate processes. To this end, this work reviews the FTIR programme of one of most relevant ground-based FTIR stations at a global scale, the subtropical Izaña Observatory (IZO, Spain), going over its history during its first 20 years of operation (1999–2018) and exploring its great value for long-term climate research.
Mahesh Kumar Sha, Bavo Langerock, Jean-François L. Blavier, Thomas Blumenstock, Tobias Borsdorff, Matthias Buschmann, Angelika Dehn, Martine De Mazière, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Michel Grutter, James W. Hannigan, Frank Hase, Pauli Heikkinen, Christian Hermans, Laura T. Iraci, Pascal Jeseck, Nicholas Jones, Rigel Kivi, Nicolas Kumps, Jochen Landgraf, Alba Lorente, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria V. Makarova, Johan Mellqvist, Jean-Marc Metzger, Isamu Morino, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Christof Petri, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, John Robinson, Sébastien Roche, Coleen M. Roehl, Amelie N. Röhling, Constantina Rousogenous, Matthias Schneider, Kei Shiomi, Dan Smale, Wolfgang Stremme, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Osamu Uchino, Voltaire A. Velazco, Corinne Vigouroux, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Pucai Wang, Thorsten Warneke, Tyler Wizenberg, Debra Wunch, Shoma Yamanouchi, Yang Yang, and Minqiang Zhou
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6249–6304, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6249-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6249-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents, for the first time, Sentinel-5 Precursor methane and carbon monoxide validation results covering a period from November 2017 to September 2020. For this study, we used global TCCON and NDACC-IRWG network data covering a wide range of atmospheric and surface conditions across different terrains. We also show the influence of a priori alignment, smoothing uncertainties and the sensitivity of the validation results towards the application of advanced co-location criteria.
Piero Lionello, David Barriopedro, Christian Ferrarin, Robert J. Nicholls, Mirko Orlić, Fabio Raicich, Marco Reale, Georg Umgiesser, Michalis Vousdoukas, and Davide Zanchettin
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 2705–2731, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2705-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2705-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
In this review we describe the factors leading to the extreme water heights producing the floods of Venice. We discuss the different contributions, their relative importance, and the resulting compound events. We highlight the role of relative sea level rise and the observed past and very likely future increase in extreme water heights, showing that they might be up to 160 % higher at the end of the 21st century than presently.
Jacob W. Maddison, Marta Abalos, David Barriopedro, Ricardo García-Herrera, Jose M. Garrido-Perez, and Carlos Ordóñez
Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 675–694, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-675-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-675-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Air stagnation occurs when an air mass becomes settled over a region and precipitation is suppressed. Pollutant levels can rise during stagnation. The synoptic- to large-scale influence on European air stagnation and pollution is explored here. We show that around 60 % of the monthly variability in air stagnation and pollutants can be explained by dynamical indices describing the atmospheric circulation. The weather systems most related to stagnation are different for regions across Europe.
Matthieu Dogniaux, Cyril Crevoisier, Raymond Armante, Virginie Capelle, Thibault Delahaye, Vincent Cassé, Martine De Mazière, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. Garcia, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, David F. Pollard, Coleen M. Roehl, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, and Thorsten Warneke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4689–4706, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4689-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4689-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present the Adaptable 4A Inversion (5AI), an implementation of the optimal estimation (OE) algorithm, relying on the Automatized Atmospheric Absorption Atlas (4A/OP) radiative transfer model, that enables the retrieval of greenhouse gas atmospheric weighted columns from infrared measurements. It is tested on a sample of Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 observations, and its results satisfactorily compare to several reference products, thus showing the reliability of 5AI OE implementation.
Thomas Blumenstock, Frank Hase, Axel Keens, Denis Czurlok, Orfeo Colebatch, Omaira Garcia, David W. T. Griffith, Michel Grutter, James W. Hannigan, Pauli Heikkinen, Pascal Jeseck, Nicholas Jones, Rigel Kivi, Erik Lutsch, Maria Makarova, Hamud K. Imhasin, Johan Mellqvist, Isamu Morino, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Uwe Raffalski, Markus Rettinger, John Robinson, Matthias Schneider, Christian Servais, Dan Smale, Wolfgang Stremme, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, and Voltaire A. Velazco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1239–1252, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1239-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1239-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigates the level of channeling (optical resonances) of each FTIR spectrometer within the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Since the air gap of the beam splitter is a significant source of channeling, we propose new beam splitters with an increased wedge of the air gap. This study shows the potential for reducing channeling in the FTIR spectrometers operated by the NDACC, thereby increasing the quality of recorded spectra across the network.
Shunya Koseki, Priscilla A. Mooney, William Cabos, Miguel Ángel Gaertner, Alba de la Vara, and Juan Jesus González-Alemán
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 53–71, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-53-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-53-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study investigated one case of a tropical-like cyclone over the Mediterranean Sea under present and future climate conditions with a regional climate model. A pseudo global warming (PGW) technique is employed to simulate the cyclone under future climate, and our simulation showed that the cyclone is moderately strengthened by warmer climate. Other PGW simulations where only ocean and atmosphere are warmed reveal the interesting results that both have counteracting effects on the cyclone.
Kaisa Lakkala, Jukka Kujanpää, Colette Brogniez, Nicolas Henriot, Antti Arola, Margit Aun, Frédérique Auriol, Alkiviadis F. Bais, Germar Bernhard, Veerle De Bock, Maxime Catalfamo, Christine Deroo, Henri Diémoz, Luca Egli, Jean-Baptiste Forestier, Ilias Fountoulakis, Katerina Garane, Rosa Delia Garcia, Julian Gröbner, Seppo Hassinen, Anu Heikkilä, Stuart Henderson, Gregor Hülsen, Bjørn Johnsen, Niilo Kalakoski, Angelos Karanikolas, Tomi Karppinen, Kevin Lamy, Sergio F. León-Luis, Anders V. Lindfors, Jean-Marc Metzger, Fanny Minvielle, Harel B. Muskatel, Thierry Portafaix, Alberto Redondas, Ricardo Sanchez, Anna Maria Siani, Tove Svendby, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6999–7024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6999-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6999-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite was launched on 13 October 2017 to provide the atmospheric composition for atmosphere and climate research. Ground-based data from 25 sites located in Arctic, subarctic, temperate, equatorial and Antarctic
areas were used for the validation of the TROPOMI surface ultraviolet (UV) radiation product. For most sites 60 %–80 % of TROPOMI data was within ± 20 % of ground-based data.
Raphael Portmann, Juan Jesús González-Alemán, Michael Sprenger, and Heini Wernli
Weather Clim. Dynam., 1, 597–615, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-597-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-597-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In September 2018 an intense Mediterranean cyclone with structural similarities to a hurricane, a so-called medicane, caused severe damage in Greece. Its development was uncertain, even just a few days in advance. The reason for this was uncertainties in the jet stream over the North Atlantic 3 d prior to cyclogenesis that propagated into the Mediterranean. They led to an uncertain position of the upper-level disturbance and, as a result, of the position and thermal structure of the cyclone.
Cited articles
Adebiyi, A. A. and Kok, J. F.: Climate models miss most of the coarse dust in the atmosphere, Sci. Adv., 6, eaaz9507, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz9507, 2020.
Aghababaeian, H., Ostadtaghizadeh, A., Ardalan, A., Asgary, A., Akbary, M., Yekaninejad, M. S., and Stephens, C.: Global Health Impacts of Dust Storms: A Systematic Review, Environ. Health Insights, 15, 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1177/11786302211018390, 2021.
Alonso-Pérez, S., Cuevas, E., and Querol, X.: Objective identification of synoptic meteorological patterns favouring African dust intrusions into the marine boundary layer of the subtropical eastern north Atlantic region, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 113, 109–124, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-011-0150-z, 2011.
Ashpole, I. and Washington, R.: Intraseasonal variability and atmospheric controls on daily dust occurrence frequency over the central and Western Sahara during the boreal summer, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 12915–12926, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020267, 2013.
Bacer, S., Jomaa, F., Beaumet, J., Gallée, H., Le Bouëdec, E., Ménégoz, M., and Staquet, C.: Impact of climate change on wintertime European atmospheric blocking, Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 377–389, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-377-2022, 2022.
Barnaba, F. and Gobbi, G. P.: Aerosol seasonal variability over the Mediterranean region and relative impact of maritime, continental and Saharan dust particles over the basin from MODIS data in the year 2001, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2367–2391, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-4-2367-2004, 2004.
Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Lupo, A., and Hernández, E. R.: A climatology of northern hemisphere blocking, J. Climate, 19, 1042–1063, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3678.1, 2006.
Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., and Trigo, R. M.: Application of blocking diagnosis methods to general circulation models. Part I: a novel detection scheme, Clim. Dynam., 35, 1373–1391, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-010-0767-5, 2010.
Barriopedro, D., Ayarzagüena, B., Garcia-Burgos, M., and García-Herrera, R.: A multi-parametric perspective of the North Atlantic eddy-driven jet, Clim. Dynam., 61, 375–397, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06574-w, 2023.
Basart, S., Pérez, C., Cuevas, E., Baldasano, J. M., and Gobbi, G. P.: Aerosol characterization in Northern Africa, Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean Basin and Middle East from direct-sun AERONET observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 8265–8282, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-8265-2009, 2009.
Basart, S., Pay, M. T., Jorba, O., Pérez, C., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., Schulz, M., and Baldasano, J. M.: Aerosols in the CALIOPE air quality modelling system: evaluation and analysis of PM levels, optical depths and chemical composition over Europe, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 3363–3392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-3363-2012, 2012.
Basart, S., Nickovic, S., Terradellas, E., Cuevas, E., Pérez García-Pando, C., García-Castrillo, G., Werner, E., and Benincasa, F.: The WMO SDS-WAS Regional Center for Northern Africa, Middle East and Europe, Web Conf., 99, 04008, https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20199904008, 2019.
Beerli, R. and Grams, C. M.: Stratospheric modulation of the large-scale circulation in the Atlantic–European region and its implications for surface weather events, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 145, 3732–3750, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3653, 2019.
Benedict, J. J., Clement, A. C., and Medeiros, B.: Atmospheric blocking and other large-scale precursor patterns of landfalling atmospheric rivers in the North Pacific: A CESM2 study, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 124, 11330–11353, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030790, 2019.
Bou Karam, D., Flamant, C., Tulet, P., Todd, M. C., Pelon, J., and Williams, E.: Dry cyclogenesis and dust mobilization in the intertropical discontinuity of the West African Monsoon: A case study, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, D05115, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010952, 2009.
Cowie, S. M., Knippertz, P., and Marsham, J. H.: A climatology of dust emission events from northern Africa using long-term surface observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8579–8597, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8579-2014, 2014.
Cuesta, J., Marsham, J. H., Parker, D. J., and Flamant, C.: Dynamical mechanisms controlling the vertical redistribution of dust and the thermodynamic structure of the West Saharan atmospheric boundary layer during summer, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 10, 34–42, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.207, 2009.
Cuevas, E., Gómez-Peláez, A. J., Rodríguez, S., Terradellas, E., Basart, S., García, R. D., García, O. E., and Alonso-Pérez, S.: The pulsating nature of large-scale Saharan dust transport as a result of interplays between mid-latitude Rossby waves and the North African Dipole Intensity, Atmos. Environ., 167, 586–602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.08.059, 2017.
Cuevas, E., Milford, C., Barreto, A., Bustos, J. J., García, R. D., Marrero, C. L., Prats, N., Bayo, C., Ramos, R., Terradellas, E., Suárez, D., Rodríguez, S., de la Rosa, J., Vilches, J., Basart, S., Werner, E., López-Villarrubia, E., Rodríguez-Mireles, S., Pita Toledo, M. L., González, O., Belmonte, J., Puigdemunt, R., Lorenzo, J. A., Oromí, P., and del Campo-Hernández, R.: Desert Dust Outbreak in the Canary Islands (February 2020): Assessment and Impacts, WMO Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Report No. 259, WWRP 2021-1, edited by: Cuevas, E., Milford, C., and Basart, S., State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), Madrid, Spain and World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, https://www.aemet.es/documentos/es/conocermas/recursos_en_linea/publicaciones_y_estudios/publicaciones/GAW_Report_No_259/GAW_Report_No_259.pdf (last access: 15 July 2023), 2021.
Davini, P. and D'Andrea, F.: From CMIP3 to CMIP6: Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Blocking Simulation in Present and Future Climate, J. Climate, 33, 10021–10038, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0862.1, 2020.
Davini, P., Cagnazzo, C., Gualdi, S., and Navarra, A.: Bidimensional Diagnostics, Variability, and Trends of Northern Hemisphere Blocking, J. Climate, 25, 6496–6509, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00032.1, 2012.
Dubovik, O., Holben, B. N., Eck, T. F., Smirnov, A., Kaufman, Y. J., King, M. D., Tanré, D., and Slutsker, I.: Variability of Absorption and Optical Properties of Key Aerosol Types Observed in Worldwide Locations, Atmos. Sci., 59, 590–608, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2002)059<0590:VOAAOP>2.0.CO;2, 2002.
EEA – European Environment Agency: Air Quality e-Reporting (AQ e-Reporting) https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/aqereporting-9 (last access: 15 June 2023), 2023.
ESCAP/APDIM: Sand and dust storms risk assessment in Asia and the Pacific, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12870/4452 (last access: 13 November 2023), 2021.
Escudero, M., Querol, X., Ávila, A., and Cuevas, E.: Origin of the exceedances of the European daily PM limit value in regional background areas of Spain, Atmos. Environ., 41, 730–744, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.09.014, 2007.
Fernández, A. J., Sicard, M., Costa, M. J., Guerrero-Rascado, J. L., Gómez-Amo, J. L., Molero, F., Barragán, R., Basart, S. Bortoli, D., Bedoya-Velásquez, A. E., Utrillas, M. P., Salvador, P., Granados-Muñoz, M. J., Potes, M., Ortiz-Amezcua, P., Martínez-Lozano, J. A., Artíñano, B., Muñoz-Porcar, C., Salgado, R., Román, R., Rocadenbosch, F., Salgueiro, V., Benavent-Oltra, A., Rodríguez-Gómez, A., Alados-Arboledas, L., Comerón, A., and Pujadas, M.: Extreme, wintertime Saharan dust intrusion in the Iberian Peninsula: Lidar monitoring and evaluation of dust forecast models during the February 2017 event, Atmos. Res., 228, 223–241, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2019.06.007, 2019.
Fiedler, S., Schepanski, K., Knippertz, P., Heinold, B., and Tegen, I.: How important are atmospheric depressions and mobile cyclones for emitting mineral dust aerosol in North Africa?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8983–9000, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8983-2014, 2014.
Flaounas, E., Kotroni, V., Lagouvardos, K., Kazadzis, S., Gkikas, A. and Hatzianastassiou, N.: Cyclone contribution to dust transport over the Mediterranean region, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 16, 473–478, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.584, 2015.
Flaounas, E., Davolio, S., Raveh-Rubin, S., Pantillon, F., Miglietta, M. M., Gaertner, M. A., Hatzaki, M., Homar, V., Khodayar, S., Korres, G., Kotroni, V., Kushta, J., Reale, M., and Ricard, D.: Mediterranean cyclones: current knowledge and open questions on dynamics, prediction, climatology and impacts, Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 173–208, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-173-2022, 2022.
Gallisai, R., Peters, F.,Volpe, G., Basart, S., and Baldasano, J., M.: Saharan dust deposition may affect phytoplankton growth in the Mediterranean Sea at ecological time scales, PLoS ONE, 9, e110762, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110762, 2014.
Garrido-Pérez, J. M., Ordóñez, C., García-Herrera, R., and Barriopedro, D.: Air stagnation in Europe: Spatiotemporal variability and impact on air quality, Sci. Total Environ., 645, 1238–1252, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.238, 2018.
Garrido-Pérez, J. M., Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Trigo, R., and Beguería, S.: Examining the outstanding Euro-Mediterranean drought of 2021–2022 and its historical context, J. Hydrometeorol., 630, 130653, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.130653, 2024.
Gavrouzou, M., Hatzianastassiou, N., Gkikas, A., Lolis, C. J., and Mihalopoulos, N. A.: Climatological Assessment of IntenseDesert Dust Episodes over the Broader Mediterranean Basin Based on Satellite Data, Remote Sens., 13, 2895, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13152895, 2021.
Gelaro, R., McCarty, W., Suarez, M. J., Todling, R., Molod, A., Takacs, L., Randles, C., Darmenov, A., Bosilovich, M. G., Reichle, R., Wargan, K., Coy, L., Cullather, R., Draper, C., Akella, S., Buchard, V., Conaty, A., da Silva, A., Gu, W., Kim, G. K., Koster, R., Lucchesi, R., Merkova, D., Nielsen, J. E., Partyka, G., Pawson, S., Putman, W., Rienecker, M., Schubert, S. D., Sienkiewicz, M., and Zhao, B.: The Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), J. Climate, 30, 5419–5454, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0758.1, 2017.
Gerasopoulos, E., Kouvarakis, G., Babasakalis, P., Vrekoussis, M., Putaud, J. P., and Mihalopoulos, N.: Origin and variability of particulate matter (PM10) mass concentrations over the Eastern Mediterranean, Atmos. Environ., 40, 4679–4690, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.04.020, 2006.
Gherboudj, I., Beegum, S. N., Marticorena, B., and Ghedira, H.: Dust emission parameterizationscheme over the MENA region: Sensitivity analysis to soil moisture andsoil texture, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 120, 10915–10938, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023338, 2015.
Giles, D. M., Sinyuk, A., Sorokin, M. G., Schafer, J. S., Smirnov, A., Slutsker, I., Eck, T. F., Holben, B. N., Lewis, J. R., Campbell, J. R., Welton, E. J., Korkin, S. V., and Lyapustin, A. I.: Advancements in the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Version 3 database – automated near-real-time quality control algorithm with improved cloud screening for Sun photometer aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 169–209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-169-2019, 2019.
Gimeno, L., Nieto, R., Vázquez, M., and Lavers, D.: Atmospheric rivers: a mini-review. Front. Earth Sci., 2, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2014.00002, 2014
Ginoux, P., Prospero, J. M., Gill, T. E., Hsu, N. C., and Zhao, M.: Global-scale attribution of anthropogenic and natural dust sources and their emission rates based on MODIS Deep Blue aerosol products, Rev. Geophys., 50, RG3005, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012RG000388, 2012.
Gkikas, A., Hatzianastassiou, N., Mihalopoulos, N., Katsoulis, V., Kazadzis, S., Pey, J., Querol, X., and Torres, O.: The regime of intense desert dust episodes in the Mediterranean based on contemporary satellite observations and ground measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 12135–12154, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-12135-2013, 2013.
Gkikas, A., Houssos, E. E., Lolis, C. J., Bartzokas, A., Mihalopoulos, N., and Hatzianastassiou, N.: Atmospheric circulation evolution related to desert dust episodes over the Mediterranean, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 141, 1634–1645, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2466, 2015.
Gkikas, A., Basart, S., Hatzianastassiou, N., Marinou, E., Amiridis, V., Kazadzis, S., Pey, J., Querol, X., Jorba, O., Gassó, S., and Baldasano, J. M.: Mediterranean intense desert dust outbreaks and their vertical structure based on remote sensing data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8609–8642, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8609-2016, 2016.
Grams, C. M., Beerli, R., Pfenninger, S., Stafell, I., and Wernli, H.: Balancing Europe's wind-power output through spatial deployment informed by weather regimes, Nat. Clim. Change, 7, 557–562, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3338, 2017.
Guerzoni, S., Chester, R., Dulac, F., Herut, B., Loye-Pilot, M.-D., Measures, C., Migon, C., Molinaroli, E., Moulin, C., Rossini, P., Saydam, C., Soudine, A., and Ziveri, P.: The role of atmospheric deposition in the biogeochemistry of the Mediterranean Sea, Prog. Oceanogr., 44, 147–190, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6611(99)00024-5, 1999.
Helgren, D. M. and Prospero, J. M.: Wind Velocities Associated with Dust Deflation Events in the Western Sahara, J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol., 26, 1147–1151, 1987.
Holben, B. N., Eck, T. F., Slutsker, I., Tanre, D., Buis, J. P., Setzer, A., Vermote, E., Reagan, J. A., Kaufman, Y., Nakajima, T., Lavenue, F., Jankowiak, I., and Smirnov, A.: AERONET – A federated instrument network and data archive for aerosol characterization, Remote Sens. Environ., 66, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(98)00031-5, 1998.
IPCC: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, in: Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D. C., Tignor, M., Poloczanska, E. S., Mintenbeck, K., Alegría, A., Craig, M., Langsdorf, S., Löschke, S., Möller, V., Okem, A., and Rama, B., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, ISBN 978-92-9169-161-6, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_SummaryVolume.pdf (last access: 20 July 2023), 2022.
Israelevich, P., Ganor, E., Alpert, P., Kishcha, P., and Stupp, A.: Predominant transport paths of Saharan dust over the mediterranean sea to Europe, J. Geophys. Res., 117, D02205, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016482, 2012.
Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, I. S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Leetmaa, A., Reynolds, R., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., 2 Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Jenne, R., and Joseph, D.: The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 77, 437–471, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0437:TNYRP>2.0.CO;2,1996.
Kaufman, Y. J., Tanré, D., Remer, L. A., Vermote, E. F., Chu, A., Holben, B. N.: Operational remote sensing of tropospheric aerosol over land from EOS moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 17–51, https://doi.org/10.1029/96JD03988, 1997.
Kautz, L.-A., Martius, O., Pfahl, S., Pinto, J. G., Ramos, A. M., Sousa, P. M., and Woollings, T.: Atmospheric blocking and weather extremes over the Euro-Atlantic sector – a review, Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 305–336, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-305-2022, 2022.
Kim, M.-H., Omar, A. H., Tackett, J. L., Vaughan, M. A., Winker, D. M., Trepte, C. R., Hu, Y., Liu, Z., Poole, L. R., Pitts, M. C., Kar, J., and Magill, B. E.: The CALIPSO version 4 automated aerosol classification and lidar ratio selection algorithm, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6107–6135, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6107-2018, 2018.
Kinne, S., Schulz, M., Textor, C., Guibert, S., Balkanski, Y., Bauer, S. E., Berntsen, T., Berglen, T. F., Boucher, O., Chin, M., Collins, W., Dentener, F., Diehl, T., Easter, R., Feichter, J., Fillmore, D., Ghan, S., Ginoux, P., Gong, S., Grini, A., Hendricks, J., Herzog, M., Horowitz, L., Isaksen, I., Iversen, T., Kirkevåg, A., Kloster, S., Koch, D., Kristjansson, J. E., Krol, M., Lauer, A., Lamarque, J. F., Lesins, G., Liu, X., Lohmann, U., Montanaro, V., Myhre, G., Penner, J., Pitari, G., Reddy, S., Seland, O., Stier, P., Takemura, T., and Tie, X.: An AeroCom initial assessment – optical properties in aerosol component modules of global models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 1815–1834, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-6-1815-2006, 2006.
Kinni, P., Kouis, P., Dimitriou, H., Yarza, S., Papatheodorou, S., Kampriani, E., Charalambous, M., Middleton, N., Novack, V., Galanakis, E., and Yiallouros, P. K.: Health effects of desert dust storm events in the south-eastern Mediterranean: perceptions and practices of local stakeholders, East Mediterr. Health, 27, 1092–1101, https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.21.037, 2021
Knippertz, P.: Dust mobilization in the West African heat trough – The role of the diurnal cycle and of extratropical synoptic disturbances, Meteorol. Z., 17, 553–563, https://doi.org/10.1127/0941-2948/2008/0315, 2008.
Knippertz, P. and Todd, M. C.: Mineral dust aerosols over the Sahara: Meteorological controls on emission and transport and implications for modeling, Rev. Geophys., 50, RG1007, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000362, 2012.
Kok, J. F., Ridley, D. A., Zhou, Q., Miller, R. L., Zhao, C., Heald, C. L., Ward, D. S., Albani, S.,and Haustein, K.: Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance, Nat. Geosci., 10, 274–278, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2912, 2017.
Kok, J. F., Adebiyi, A. A., Albani, S., Balkanski, Y., Checa-Garcia, R., Chin, M., Colarco, P. R., Hamilton, D. S., Huang, Y., Ito, A., Klose, M., Li, L., Mahowald, N. M., Miller, R. L., Obiso, V., Pérez García-Pando, C., Rocha-Lima, A., and Wan, J. S.: Contribution of the world's main dust source regions to the global cycle of desert dust, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8169–8193, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8169-2021, 2021.
Kuula, J., Timonen, H., Niemi, J. V., Manninen, H. E., Rönkkö, T., Hussein, T., Fung, P. L., Tarkoma, S., Laakso, M., Saukko, E., Ovaska, A., Kulmala, M., Karppinen, A., Johansson, L., and Petäjä, T.: Opinion: Insights into updating Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4801–4808, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4801-2022, 2022.
Lagaria, A., Mandalakis, M., Mara, P., Papageorgiou, N., Pitta, P., Tsiola, A., Kagiorgi, M., and Psarra, S.: Phytoplankton response to Saharan dust depositions in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: A mesocosm study, Front. Mar. Sci., 3, 287, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00287, 2017.
Liu, Z., Vaughan, M., Winker, D., Kittaka, C., Getzewich, B., Kuehn, R., Omar, A., Powell, K., Trepte, C., and Hostetler, C.: The CALIPSO lidar cloud and aerosol discrimination: Version 2 algorithm and initial assessment of performance, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 26, 1198–1213, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHA1229.1, 2009.
Liu, Z., Kar, J., Zeng, S., Tackett, J., Vaughan, M., Avery, M., Pelon, J., Getzewich, B., Lee, K.-P., Magill, B., Omar, A., Lucker, P., Trepte, C., and Winker, D.: Discriminating between clouds and aerosols in the CALIOP version 4.1 data products, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 703–734, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-703-2019, 2019.
Lorente-Plazas, R., Montavez, J. P., Ramos, A. M., Jerez, S., Trigo, R. M. and Jimenez-Guerrero, P.: Unusual atmospheric-river-like structures coming from Africa induce extreme precipitation over the western Mediterranean Sea, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, e2019JD031280, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031280, 2020.
Maddison, J. W., Abalos, M., Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Garrido-Pérez, J. M., and Ordóñez, C.: Linking air stagnation in Europe with the synoptic- to large-scale atmospheric circulation, Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 675–694, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-675-2021, 2021.
Marconi, M., Sferlazzo, D. M., Becagli, S., Bommarito, C., Calzolai, G., Chiari, M., di Sarra, A., Ghedini, C., Gómez-Amo, J. L., Lucarelli, F., Meloni, D., Monteleone, F., Nava, S., Pace, G., Piacentino, S., Rugi, F., Severi, M., Traversi, R., and Udisti, R.: Saharan dust aerosol over the central Mediterranean Sea: PM10 chemical composition and concentration versus optical columnar measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2039–2054, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2039-2014, 2014.
Met Office: EUMETSAT (2022): MSG: Dust imagery in the RGB channels over the full disc at 41.5 degrees East (LEDF41, up to 0900U̇TC 1st June 2022), NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b1dacc09b42f4d8ab492c5d5c751efa9 (last access: 15 June 2023), 2022.
Michel, C. and Rivière, G.: The link between Rossby wave breakings and weather regime transitions, J. Atmos. Sci., 68, 1730–1748, https://doi.org/10.1175/2011JAS3635.1, 2011.
Middleton, N. and Kappelle, M.: Impacts of sand and dust storms on oceans: a scientific environmental assessment for policy makers, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya, https://www.unep.org/resources/report/impacts-sand-and-dust-storms-oceans (last access: 15 June 2023), 2020
Monteiro, A., Basart, S., Kazadzis, S., Votsis, A., Gkikas, A., Vandenbussche, S., Tobias, A., Gama, C., Pérez García-Pando, C., Terradellas, E., Notas, G., Middleton, N., Kushta, J., Amiridis, V., Lagouvardos, K., Kosmopoulos, P., Kotroni, V., Kanakidou, M., Mihalopoulos, N., Kalivitis, N., Dagsson-Waldhauserová, P., El-Askary, H., Sievers, K., Giannaros, T., Mona, L., Hirtl, M., Skomorowski, P., Virtanen, T. H., Christoudias, T., Di Mauro, B., Trippetta, S., Kutuzov, S., Meinander, O., and Nickovic, S.: Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018, Sci. Total Environ., 843, 156861, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156861, 2022.
Moulin, C., Lambert, C. E., Dayan, U., Masson, V., Ramonet, M., Bousquet, P., Legrand, M., Balkanski, Y. J., Guelle, W., Marticorena, B., Bergametti, G., and Dulac, F.: Satellite climatology of African dust transport in the Mediterranean atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 13137–13144, https://doi.org/10.1029/98JD00171, 1998.
Muñoz, C., Schultz, D., and Vaughan, G.: A Midlatitude Climatology and Interannual Variability of 200- and 500-hPa Cut-Off Lows, J. Climate, 33, 2201–2222, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0497.1, 2020.
Nabizadeh, E., Hassanzadeh, P., Yang, D., and Barnes, E. A.: Size of the atmospheric blocking events: Scaling law and response to climate change, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 13488–13499, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084863, 2019.
NASA: Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations, https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/project/CALIPSO (last access: 15 September 2023), 2023a.
NASA: AERONET, https://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov (last access: 15 June 2023), 2023b.
NASA: Giovanni, https://giovanni.gsfc.nasa.gov/giovanni/ (last access: 4 April 2024), 2024.
Nieto, R., Gimeno, L., de la Torre, L., Ribera, P., Gallego, D., García-Herrera, R., García, J. A., Nuñez, M., Redaño, A., and Lorente, J.: Climatological features of Cut-off low systems in the Northern Hemisphere, J. Climate, 18, 3085–3103, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3386.1, 2005.
Nieto, R., Gimeno, L., de la Torre, Ribera, L., Barriopedro, P., García-Herrera, D., Serrano, R., Gordillo, A., Redaño, A., and Lorente, J.: Interannual variability of cut-off low systems over the European sector: The role of blocking and the Northern Hemisphere circulation modes, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 96, 85–101, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-006-0222-7, 2007.
NOAA: Physical Sciences Laboratory, https://psl.noaa.gov/ (last access: 15 June 2023), 2023.
Oduber, F., Calvo, A. I., Blanco-Alegre, C., Castro, A., Nunes, T., Alves, C., Sorribas, M., Fernández-González, D,. Vega-Maray, A. M., Valencia-Barrera, R. M., Lucarelli, F., Nava, S., Calzolai, G., Alonso-Blanco, E., Fraile, B., Fialho, P., Coz, E., Prevot, A. S. H., Pont, V., and Fraile, R.: Unusual winter Saharan dust intrusions at Northwest Spain: Air quality, radiative and health impacts, Sci. Total Environ., 669, 213–228, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.305, 2019.
Ordóñez, C., Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Sousa, P. M., and Schnell, J. L.: Regional responses of surface ozone in Europe to the location of high-latitude blocks and subtropical ridges, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3111–3131, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3111-2017, 2017.
Otero, N., Jurado, O. E., Butler, T., and Rust, H. W.: The impact of atmospheric blocking on the compounding effect of ozone pollution and temperature: a copula-based approach, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1905–1919, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1905-2022, 2022.
Pey, J., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., Forastiere, F., and Stafoggia, M.: African dust outbreaks over the Mediterranean Basin during 2001–2011: PM10 concentrations, phenomenology and trends, and its relation with synoptic and mesoscale meteorology, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1395–1410, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-1395-2013, 2013.
Pfahl, S.: Characterising the relationship between weather extremes in Europe and synoptic circulation features, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 1461–1475, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-14-1461-2014, 2014.
Pitkanen-Brunnsberg, J.: Background Note on the UN Sand and Dust Storm (SDS) Coalition, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, France, https://policycommons.net/artifacts/2227328/background-note-on-the-un-sand-and-dust-storm-sds-coalition/2984760/ (last access: 17 June 2023), 2019.
Portmann, R., Sprenger, M., and Wernli, H.: The three-dimensional life cycles of potential vorticity cutoffs: a global and selected regional climatologies in ERA-Interim (1979–2018), Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 507–534, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-507-2021, 2021.
Querol, X., Pey, J., Pandolfi, M., Alastuey, A., Cusack, M., Pérez, N., Moreno, N., Viana, M., Mihalopoulos, N., Kallos, G., and Kleanthous, S.: African dust contributions to mean ambient PM10 mass-levels across the Mediterranean basin, Atmos. Environ., 43, 4266–4277, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.06.013, 2009.
Rex, D.: Blocking Action in the Middle Troposphere and its Effect upon Regional Climate, Tellus, 2, 275–301, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1950.tb00339.x, 1950.
Rodríguez, S., Cuevas, E., Prospero, J. M., Alastuey, A., Querol, X., López-Solano, J., García, M. I., and Alonso-Pérez, S.: Modulation of Saharan dust export by the North African dipole, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7471–7486, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7471-2015, 2015.
Ryder, C. L., Marenco, F., Brooke, J. K., Estelles, V., Cotton, R., Formenti, P., McQuaid, J. B., Price, H. C., Liu, D., Ausset, P., Rosenberg, P. D., Taylor, J. W., Choularton, T., Bower, K., Coe, H., Gallagher, M., Crosier, J., Lloyd, G., Highwood, E. J., and Murray, B. J.: Coarse-mode mineral dust size distributions, composition and optical properties from AER-D aircraft measurements over the tropical eastern Atlantic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17225–17257, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17225-2018, 2018.
Salvador, P., Alonso-Pérez, S., Pey, J., Artíñano, B., de Bustos, J. J., Alastuey, A., and Querol, X.: African dust outbreaks over the western Mediterranean Basin: 11-year characterization of atmospheric circulation patterns and dust source areas, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6759–6775, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6759-2014, 2014.
Sayer, A. M., Hsu, N. C., Bettenhausen, C., and Jeong, M.-J.: Validation and uncertainty estimates for MODIS Collection 6 “Deep Blue” aerosol data, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 7864–7872, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50600, 2013.
Schepanski, K., Tegen, I., Laurent, B., Heinold, B., and Macke, A.: A new Saharan dust source activation frequency map derived from MSG-SEVIRI IR-channels, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L18803, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL030168, 2007.
Schepanski, K., Tegen, I., Todd, M. C., Heinold, B., Bönisch, G., Laurent, B., and Macke, A.: Meteorological processes forcing Saharan dust emission inferred from MSGSEVIRI observations of subdaily dust source activation and numerical models, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D10201, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010325, 2009.
Schepanski, K., Tegen, I., and Macke, A.: Comparison of satellite based observations of Saharan dust source areas, Remote Sens. Environ., 123, 90–97, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.019, 2012.
Shepherd, G., Terradellas, E., Baklanov, A., Kang, U., Sprigg, W. A., Nickovic, S., Boloorani, A.D., Al-Dousari, A., Basart, S.,, Benedetti, A., Sealy, A., Tong, D., Zhang, X., Shumake-Guillemot, J., Kebin, Z., Knippertz, P., Mohammed, A. A. A., Al-Dabbas, M., Cheng, L., Otani, S., Wang, F., Zhang, C., Ryoo, S. B., and Cha, J.: Global assessment of sand and dust storms, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, 139 pp., ISBN 978-92-807-3551-2, 2016.
Sousa, P. M., Trigo, R. M., Barriopedro, D., Soares, P. M. M., and Santos, J. A.: European temperature responses to blocking and ridge regional patterns, Clim. Dynam., 50, 457–477, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3620-2, 2018.
Sousa, P. M., Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Woollings, T., and Trigo, R. M.: A New Combined Detection Algorithm for Blocking and Subtropical Ridges, J. Climate, 34, 7735–7758, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0658.1, 2021.
Stathopoulos, C., Patlakas, P., Tsalis, C., and Kallos, G.: The Role of Sea Surface Temperature Forcing in the Life-Cycle of Mediterranean Cyclones, Remote Sens., 12, 825, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12050825, 2020.
Stephens, G. L., Vane, D. G., Boain, R. J., Mace, G. G., Sassen, K., Wang, Z., Illingworth, A. J., O'Connor, E. J., Rossow, W. B., Durden, S. L., Miller, S. D., Austin, R. T., Benedetti, A., Mitrescu, C., and CloudSat Science Team: The CloudSat mission and the A-Train: A new dimension of space-based observations of clouds and precipitation, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83, 1771–1790, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-83-12-1771, 2002.
Szopa, S., Naik, V., Adhikary, B., Artaxo, P., Berntsen, T., Collins, W. D., Fuzzi, S., Gallardo, L., Kiendler-Scharr, A., Klimont, Z., Liao, H., Unger, N., and Zanis, P.: Short-Lived Climate Forcers, in: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S. L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., Chen, Y., Goldfarb, L., Gomis, M. I., Huang, M., Leitzell, K., Lonnoy, E., Matthews, J. B. R., Maycock, T. K., Waterfield, T., Yelekçi, O., Yu, R., and Zhou, B., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 817–922, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.008, 2021.
Tegen, I., Schepanski, K., and Heinold, B.: Comparing two years of Saharan dust source activation obtained by regional modelling and satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2381–2390, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2381-2013, 2013.
Terradellas, E., Nickovic, S., and Zhang, X. Y.: Airborne dust: a hazard to human health, environment and society, WMO Bull. 64, 42–46, https://sds-was.aemet.es/materials/hazard.pdf (last access: 15 February 2024), 2015.
Thomas, N. and Nigam, S.: Twentieth-Century Climate Change over Africa: Seasonal Hydroclimate Trends and Sahara Desert Expansion, J. Climate, 31, 3349–3370, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0187.1, 2018.
Trigo, R. M., Trigo, I. F., DaCamara, C. C., and Osborn, T. J.: Winter blocking episodes in the European–Atlantic sector: Climate impacts and associated physical mechanisms in the Reanalysis, Clim. Dynam., 23, 17–28, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0410-4, 2004.
Varga, G., Ùjvári, G., and Kovács, J.: Spatiotemporal patterns of Saharan dust outbreaks in the Mediterranean Basin, Aeolian Res., 15, 151–160, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2014.06.005, 2014.
Vaughan, M. A., Powell, K. A., Kuehn, R. E., Young, S. A., Winker, D. M., Hostetler, C. A., Hunt, W. H., Liu, Z., McGill, M. J., and Getzewich, B. Z.: Fully automated detection of cloud and aerosol layers in the CALIPSO lidar measurements, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 26, 2034–2050, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHA1228.1, 2009.
Wagner R., Schepanski, K., Heinold, B., and Tegen, I.: Interannual variability in the Saharan dust source activation – Toward differences between 2007 and 2008, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 121, 4538–4562, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024302, 2016.
Wang, W., Evan, A., Flamant, C., and Lavaysse, C.: On the decadal scale correlation between African dust and Sahel rainfall: The role of Saharan heat low-forced winds, Sci. Adv., 1, e1500646, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500646, 2015.
Wazneh, H., Gachon, P., Laprise, R., de Vernal, A., and Tremblay, B.: Atmospheric blocking events in the North Atlantic: trends and links to climate anomalies and teleconnections, Clim. Dynam., 56, 2199–2221, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05583-x, 2021.
WHO – World Health Organization: WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, World Health Organization, https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/345329 (last access: 15 June 2023), 2021.
Wilks, D. S.: Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, Cambridge Univertity Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, ISBN 9780123850232, 2011.
Winker, D. M., Vaughan, M. A., Omar, A. H., Hu, Y., Powell, K. A., Liu, Z., Hunt, W. H., and Young, S. A.: Overview of the CALIPSO mission and CALIOP data processing algorithms, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 26, 2310–2323, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JTECHA1281.1, 2009.
Winstanley, D.: Sharav, Weather, 27, 146–160, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1972.tb04279.x, 1972.
WMO: The Role of Climatological Normals in a Changing Climate, WCDMP-No.61, WMO-TD No. 1377, edited by: Baddour, O. and Kontongomde, H., https://library.wmo.int/viewer/52499/download?file=wmo-td_1377_en.pdf&type=pdf&navigator=1 (last access: 25 January 2024), 2007.
WMO: Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS), Science and Implementation Plan: 2015–2020, WWRP 2015–5, 30 pp., https://repositorio.aemet.es/handle/20.500.11765/2852 (last access: 15 February 2024), 2015.
WMO: Airborne dust bulletin No. 5, https://library.wmo.int/idurl/4/57560 (last access: 15 June 2023), 2021.
WMO: Airborne dust bulletin No. 7, https://library.wmo.int/idurl/4/57560 (last access: 15 June 2023), 2023a.
WMO: Daily Dust Products, https://dust.aemet.es/products/daily-dust-products (last access: 15 June 2023), 2023b.
Woollings, T., Barriopedro, D., Methven, J., Son, S.-W, Martius, O., Harvey, B., Sillmann, J., Lupo, A. R., and Seneviratne, S.: Blocking and its response to climate change, Curr. Clim. Change Rep., 4, 287–300, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-018-0108-z, 2018.
Wu, M., Liu, X., Yu, H., Wang, H., Shi, Y., Yang, K., Darmenov, A., Wu, C., Wang, Z., Luo, T., Feng, Y., and Ke, Z.: Understanding processes that control dust spatial distributions with global climate models and satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13835–13855, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13835-2020, 2020.
Short summary
During February–March (FM) 2020–2022, unusually intense dust storms from northern Africa hit the western Euro-Mediterranean (WEM). Using dust products from satellites and atmospheric reanalysis for 2003–2022, results show that cut-off lows and European blocking are key drivers of FM dust intrusions over the WEM. A higher frequency of cut-off lows associated with subtropical ridges is observed in the late 2020–2022 period.
During February–March (FM) 2020–2022, unusually intense dust storms from northern Africa hit the...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint